The Chicago Bulls are turning the United Center campus into a free, weekend-long basketball carnival, with Bulls Fest set for this Saturday and Sunday outside the arena. The event mixes open courts, franchise alumni, and youth clinics into what has become the team's marquee off-season gathering for West Side neighbors and fans from across the region.
The festival runs in Lot C of the United Center campus from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, according to Pippen Ain't Easy. Kyle Cummings, the Bulls' head of basketball programming, joined CBS News Chicago anchor Audrina Sinclair to discuss what draws fans back to the event year after year, as reported by CBS News. The Bulls are offering the entire festival free to attendees, a detail Cummings highlighted in that conversation.
A 51-Court Tournament Anchors the Weekend
The festival's centerpiece is a 3v3 basketball tournament spread across 51 outdoor courts, with brackets for men, women, and youth players age 8 and up, per Yardbarker. Division champions walk away with Bulls gear and tickets to a regular-season home game, the outlet notes. This year's lineup also includes a Wheelchair Basketball Division presented by Gallagher, drawing teams from the National Wheelchair Basketball Association including the Chicago Skyhawks and the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association, according to the same Yardbarker report.
Youth programming rounds out the athletic side of the weekend. Jewel-Osco is presenting 16 specialized basketball clinics for children ages 3 to 17, offering parent-child sessions alongside alumni-led skill instruction, the Chicago Defender reports.
Rookies and Retired Stars Mix With Fans
Inside the United Center Atrium, this year's rookie class — Caleb Wilson, Dailyn Swain, Jaylin Sellers, and Tobe Awaka — is scheduled to hold photo sessions with fans, following their appearances in the Las Vegas Summer League, per Pippen Ain't Easy. Former Bulls players and NBA veterans are also expected throughout the weekend, including Eddy Curry, Kendall Gill, Will Perdue, Nate Robinson, Jeff Sanders, and Metta World Peace, Yardbarker reports.
The Atrium is also home to The Art of the Game, an immersive exhibition of basketball-inspired artwork from local Chicago artists, according to FOX 32 Chicago's coverage of last year's festival. The gallery brings the aesthetic of the outdoor courts indoors, giving fans another reason to duck out of the August sun between games.
From a Labor Day Pop-Up to a West Side Tradition
Bulls Fest began modestly, launching over Labor Day weekend in September 2022 as a two-day street festival outside the United Center built around basketball, local music, and urban art, according to Time Out Chicago. It has grown quickly since: last year's event drew more than 16,000 attendees over its two-day run, per Do312. The United Center itself, which anchors the campus hosting the festival, opened in August 1994 and remains the largest arena by capacity in the NBA.
For Cummings and the Bulls organization, the weekend does double duty — a fan-appreciation event and a chance to introduce new draft picks, spotlight sponsors like Jewel-Osco and Gallagher, and build momentum toward ticket sales ahead of the regular season. Whether Chicago's late-August weather cooperates for two full days of outdoor courts, and how the new rookie class connects with fans after their Summer League debuts, remain open questions heading into the weekend.
